@cstross Got that bit!

Parts of the western US there are are active freight lines down city streets plus there are semi-fossil rights-of-way still on streets that are not used very often but the clearances are maintained against the day. This looks like one of those; someone missed a switch, and it's very possible that they really don't want to run the whole freight wherever this bit of track is going. ("The factory that was there closed down in 2003" sorts of circumstances.)

@graydon There was this time in 2018 when Feorag and I were driving from Vancouver to Edmondton and after one particularly late day's driving we were half a kilometre from our hotel in a small town when we ran into a level crossing. And guess what we met, inching slowly across it onto a turning loop then back out again ...

(That was an annoying half hour long wait!)

@cstross I am laughing the laugh of familiarity over here.

(Grew up at a time when Smiths Falls still had rail rolling stock service facilities; trains that were backing at barely perceptible speed through the level crossing were absolutely a thing.)

@cstross @graydon Oh sweet summer child! There's a crossing on the A10 between here and Cambridge where my SatNav ETA will drop by 3 minutes as I pass, because that's the *average* delay that that crossing causes. The problem in this case is when the barrier stays down after the up train, and the down train, and until after the next up train, the one that's coming to a halt at the platform that extends to the crossing

I did know a taxi driver who died at that crossing, 30+ years ago